Cathleen Falsani - The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers

ZONDERVAN

The Dude Abides
Copyright 2009 by Cathleen Falsani

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ePub Edition August 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-56128-6

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Falsani, Cathleen, 1970

The dude abides: the Gospel according to the Coen brothers / Cathleen Falsani.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

Includes filmography.

ISBN 978-0-310-29246-3 (softcover)

1. Coen, Ethan Criticism and interpretation. 2. Coen, Joel Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.

PN1998.3C6635F35 2009

791.4302'330922 dc22 2009018440

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, Todays New International VersionTM. TNIV. Copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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Published in association with Yates & Yates, www.yates2.com

Interior design by Beth Shagene

Cover and interior illustrations by Erik Rose

For my father, Mario,

who took me to see my first movie,

The Apple Dumpling Gang, in 1975,

when I was not quite five years old,

and instilled in me a lifelong love of film.

Thank you, Daddy.

CONTENTS

Id like to suggest a movie scenario to. It is the story of a young arrogant boy who insists he can single-handedly defeat his countrys greatest terrorist. Hes called on his boast. He approaches the enemys weapon of mass destruction with a laser beam of his own invention, and with a few blasts it is vaporized. Frightened at the prospect of imminent defeat, the enemy retreats back behind its own boundaries.

The kid is a national hero. Hes welcomed to the home of the president. Soon after, his friendship with the presidents son blossoms into an intimate (some say homosexual) relationship. Countless of the countrys rock stars compose tributes to the young hero, and cable channels praise the boy on 24-7 news cycles. He marries the presidents daughter. His popularity ratings far exceed the presidents own, and soon the presidents jealousy builds to homicidal so that the boy must flee. The president takes out a contract on the boys life. The plot is foiled, and in the gun battle, the presidents son is slain. And the president has a heart attack and dies.

The popularity of the boy is so great that he replaces the president. The boy has a guitar talent and appears constantly on nighttime TV playing his own compositions. One day, while sunning himself on the roof of the presidential palace, he gazes down at the mansions pool and spots an intern lounging poolside. The boys chief of staff informs him that the beauty is married to one of his generals. The boy immediately dispatches the general to the front lines, where he is quickly killed. Because his country permits multiple marriages, the intern and the boy are soon wed. Their first child dies. When the boy laments, Why? Why? his attorney general points out his lust and his role in the death of the general. Fast-forward. Eventually the boy will be challenged for his office unsuccessfully by one of his own sons, and upon his death, another of his sons succeeds him.

Sound like a good plot, right?

Nah, nobody would believe it.

But our biblical ancestors did. Its the story of King David, the man said to have been the apple of Gods eye. While most of us cannot imagine a world without cell phones, emails, iPods, and DVDs, our biblical ancestors had none of the above. Their mass communication was through spoken stories and pageantry. The early tales were broadcast via fireside chats while tending sheep, conversations while on pilgrimage, or parents at the bedtime hour. By the time of Moses in the Old Testament, we are introduced to thunder and lightning, the sound of the shofar, and Ten Commandments on a stone slab. Subsequently, we added the role of the Kohen (also called the Cohen, Cohn, and Coen) to dramatize the points being made. The high priest surrounded himself with stage props such as fancy clothing, frankincense, burnt offerings, elaborate music, and fiery sacrifices all to make a moral point.

The historian Josephus informs us that in the post-Maccabean period the high priest was seen as exercising authority in all things political, legal, and sacerdotal. He was the supreme power. The high 8 priest of the Sanhedrin was also chief judge and president. The Kohen became producer extraordinaire. As time went by, the community added the role of the Darshan the storyteller interpreter of the legends. His job was to make the moral high road come alive to even the mostly ignorant listeners. A musical score was also added to the weekly scriptural reading to enhance its exposition.

Joel and Ethan Coen have become part of the same progression from priest to judge to storyteller to producer extraordinaire. Cathleen calls them secular theologians.

A careful reading of Scripture finds our fathers and mothers dealing with family, love, and marriage; revenge, faith, and fear; rehabilitation, consequences, and commitment; fantasy, sexuality, and violence; dreams, visions, and betrayal; lust, gluttony, and ego; kindness, the unknowable, and respect; compassion, pride, and adultery; murder, idolatry, and double-cross; choices, threats, and doubt. And this list is only a partial one. Its all there in our Sacred Works. Or as Casey Stengel (a.k.a. The Old Perfessor) would say, You could look it up.

My guess is that the Coens would deny any message to their medium or that they were theologians at all (secular or otherwise.) Still, the long list of biblical plot points in the above paragraph resonates through each of their films.

Danny Siegel in his book And God Braided Eves Hair sets up one significant Coenesque spiritual message: If you always assume the person sitting next to you is the Messiah waiting for some simple human kindness, you will soon come to weigh your words and watch your hands. And if he chooses not to be revealed in your time, it will not matter. A messiah yet to be revealed in the world of the Coen brothers could be Barton Fink or Jeffrey The Dude Lebowski; Marge Gunderson, Sheriff Bell, or Chad Feldheimer. The chosen one could be located in the Ukraine, Washington, D.C., Arizona, or Los Angeles. But most likely, he or she is sitting right next to the Coens (and you) at this very moment.